How to stop Google from asking for your location while using Safari

Submitted by Jon Reed on June 30, 2018 - 7:46am

Over the last year or two Safari users may have gradually become aware that it was asking (on Google's behalf) for their location far too often, to the point of being truly annoying. If you have mindlessly been tapping "OK" for too long and are finally fed up enough to do something about it, there are a couple solutions - you can allow it to use your location in such a way that it won't ask all the time or you can have it never use your location. Here's how to fix it on iPhone or iPad:

Grant access to location

By giving Google access to your "precise location" it will stop asking. To do this, just scroll down to the bottom of the search results page and tap "Use Precise Location." You will get the prompt one more time, just tap "OK" and that should be the last time it asks.

For future searches, if for some reason it seems to not know your location, you can tap "Update" at the bottom of the search results page.

Stop location services for Safari

If you don't want Google to know your location you can simply turn off Location Services for Safari. This will stop it from asking as well. Open Settings -> Privacy.

Tap on Location Services.

Scroll down to Safari Websites and tap on it.

Select "Never."

Either of these methods should stop the incessant prompts. Alternatively, you could change Safari's search engine to Yahoo, Bing or DuckDuckGo, though these will likely prompt you for your location as well.